Why It's Impossible For Me To Hate The Jeep Grand Cherokee

foreign hello everybody today on the channel objectivity is taking a holiday as am I because this is one of the videos I'm doing simply because I know driving this car is going to put a huge smile on my face [Music] it is very easy to assume that for us YouTuber types we're only interested in the latest the greatest the newest the fastest and the most hardcore but often that's not the case especially for me I have people offering me cars of all sorts all the time and I can assure you that those which make me most excited are very rarely the most expensive and the fastest in fact at days one of the slower cars that I have driven this is a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee technically speaking this actually is the hot version of the Grand Cherokee with its 4.7 liter high output V8 engine but high output here means only about 260 horses makes a decent noise though foreign because at lower speeds at least put your foot down and it will move happily torque is a little more generous 330 pound feet that's 470 ish new to meters or so and of course this being an American car it's delivered to the wheels via an automatic gearbox this car also has a permanent computer-controlled all-wheel drive system a step on from the old Grand Cherokee and I must confess it's the old Grand Cherokee the first generation that made me so Keen to drive this I love having 4x4s because you can just do this sort of stuff and you're really not causing any harm this is so satisfying you see way back in 1997 my grandfather the same one who's motorbike I'm currently restoring bought a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee this was a very very unusual thing for a couple of reasons first off my granddad didn't really care about new cars to give you some context at the time he had a fairly old Vauxhall Astra Van that was probably five or six years old then and a 1990-something Toyota Celica not a GT4 this was a fifth generation car with the two liter petrol and an automatic so it's fair to say he was not really a sporty driver despite being a mechanic this also was from a time when people didn't go out and buy four by fours as a normal thing it later transpired the real reasoning behind getting this car was so that his elderly mother could go out with him it was something she could get in and out of easily and also have a decent view of the world sadly she didn't last long enough to be able to experience it however us kids did get to benefit from it we had a lovely trip over to Denmark where we went to Legoland did various different things and made some very very happy memories before he eventually passed away in 1999. Nan kept a hold of the Jeep for quite a while and she had it long enough that by the time I could drive I did actually get to have a go in him that was a 1997 either a Laredo or limited I cannot remember which but the red was p908 pno it had the two and a half liter diesel which made very little power like less than 120 horses and was entertaining to drive in fact much like this it also had a sticker warning you that if you tried to go around a bend it would fall over and then you would die so it's for those reasons that when this car's very kind Ono Rowan offered it and a whole bunch of other stuff to me it was the Jeep I immediately gravitated towards even though this is actually a second generation not the first it's still a Grand Cherokee and this one has a proper engine in it in fact I've just spotted something over there really quite remarkable you don't see those very often so as we're in a beautiful bit of Britain I'm going to turn around and show you what is really a truly British icon I didn't know you even got these anymore certainly in my neck of the woods you don't oh I love four by fours I especially love Tatty 4x4s and we'll talk about this car in just a moment but first I gotta show you this now we're going to have to approach very very discreetly and quietly so we don't disturb it and it'll run away but just here this is a genuine early 2000s Transit van dumped in the woods with a broken down will be recovered soon sign now coated in police tape that's to me as British icons go that is up there with the Beatles red telephone boxes it's Majestic isn't it and as we're on the side of the road I'll obey the law turn this car off and tell you a few of the interesting things about this exact vehicle Rowan is in a business that means he may have to go just about anywhere in the local area at any time so he needs a backup car he needs something that will get wherever it is he has to go regardless of the weather so he wanted a cheap 4x4 that he wouldn't care about too much but could still get anywhere and he was looking for something sensible like a RAV4 instead saw this put a cheeky bid in and got it however this being now a near 20 year old Jeep in fact an exactly 20 year old Jeep a few things have been problematic in no particular order this car's on 93 000 miles now and when he got it was on 74 000. it had already had an engine rebuild but this new one all very strong very good and because it is regular American engine you can do just about anything to it this is the Overland trim which is the highest spec so it's got bits of the wood cruise control electric seats automatic gearbox you only got these high upper engines with them heated seats they don't work stereo that mostly does a Sat Nav that I think was a dealer retrofit and that no longer works but leki Windows all round memory seats sunroof all sorts it's a very nicely specified car however a few things needed to be done after he'd bought it so the front calipers needed doing because one of them was binding it's had a new steering box new links it's had the differentials rebuilt front and rear there's a front bearing that's been done a rear one is currently on the way out and he carries coil packs in the car because they're both easy to change and regularly need changing the transfer box despite an oil change still groans and moans there's also quite a bit of damage the front bumper is held on by cable ties because he did take it off-roading and removed the front bumper and perhaps my favorite bit of the entire car is the fact there's a bunch of silver marks on it where an angry and elderly neighbor didn't like how he'd parked it so spray painted the car hmm in the boot there is a very large subwoofer which is slightly frustrating because the boot itself is not actually that big one of the funny things about these cars is that uh they look big but they're not back in the day when I was a kid this was a this was a big car now well Jeep call it a mid-size in fact by American Standards this is nearly a compact the good news though is that a car like this could be yours for just about two and a half thousand pounds that's pure Nostalgia for me that noise it also makes this noise although it does now smell of oil and if the siren song of the Grand Cherokee has you lusting after one for yourself make sure to check out any potential purchase with car vertical our Channel sponsor and an ally in the fight against dodgy dealers you can find out if a car has been crashed written off used as a taxi stolen clocked or color changed they'll even tell you about any model specific recalls or common failure points just enter the VIN number of any car you're looking at and you'll get a report generated instantly for a special discount on the service just use the link in the description down below [Music] you see one of the reasons I really really admire this car and it's ilk the reason for this sticker to be honest is the fact it's a proper 4x4 it's very very softly suspended I feel like I can go pretty much anywhere in this car that's the whole point of it that's why Rowan has it you go around a bend and it will lean if I try and do that sort of thing flip it Nick that's atrocious but it's comfy these roads are really really badly paved I've driven a couple of sports cars down here trust me I didn't want to but we had to and it's fine it's lovely steering actually has some weighting to it when you do get into the bend breaks they work overly servoed no feel whatsoever it is reasonably Pokey and I like old school torque converter Autos in cars like this because it means when you put your foot down it moves parts handily are also very cheap and despite this being an old American car it was in some ways quite revolutionary because where many other competitors of the time including even the first gen Merc ml were body on frame this was a unibody construction for an off-roader that was quite unusual for that reason it's comparatively light two tons which yes I know is still no flow weight but for this kind of car that's light Grandad's old Jeep wind up getting retired about six years ago we have been trying to persuade Nan into something a little more modern for quite some time we were somewhat terrified about what an old lady who really can't drive a toffee would do in a dirty great big four by four but the breaking point came when she drove home without any brakes they'd failed about 20 miles away from home and rather than do the sensible thing pull to the side of the road put the handbrake on and call the AAA she drove home on the back roads using the handbrake only so after that we did manage to convince her to part with it and happily it went to a chap and his son who took it on a charity rally what really can you say about this guy yeah the interior is a bit old the gearbox is a little bit slow and dim-witted but it makes great noise it's really comfortable it's got room in it for four adults yes it drinks fuel 20-ish to the gallon but it's a cheap car to buy it's a reasonably cheap car to run it's fun and it's actually quite easy to place on roads like this it's very squared off you can't really see the Bonnet all that well but it's a reasonably narrow car by modern standards and it's not at all daunting to drive also this is the sort of thing that I know if I put a great big scratch in the side of it row and just say oh don't worry about it these things happen I'm not going to do that deliberately this isn't Top Gear come on but I like cars like that there's an appeal to stuff like that I get worried when people have cars are so valuable you don't want to take it out what if a fingerprint lands on it yeah and so and it makes good noises most worryingly I went to look this morning at what you'd actually pay for one of these or a first generation one of these you're starting at a couple of grand or so the first generation though I couldn't find I mean really there were none on auto trader and there were none on eBay maybe I missed those but that's kind of disturbing so if somebody does happen to have a first generation Jeep Grand Cherokee that I can have a bit of a play with I would love to because that's going to be really nostalgic this second generation was in essence an all-new thing but still possesses I think all the qualities that made that a really rather enjoyable car and as it happens the Grand Cherokee was vital in turning around Chrysler's fortunes too so actually it's got a nice piece of History to it there we go that's a little bit of a different video from me hope you've enjoyed it please comment down below tell me if you have or haven't this has been a little play in a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland don't forget to hit the like button comment down below subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you for the next one bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign

Channel: JayEmm on Cars

Views: 56,594

Keywords: Diary, VLOG, Car, Sound, Test, video, Review, Comparison, JayEmm on Cars

Id: DeB-o1pWy70

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2022